Eye movements confirm hypnosis
A true trance can't be faked
Though less obvious than giant red swirls in the eyes, a glassy gaze that jumps around in bizarre patterns may mark a fake-proof hypnotic trance, researchers report.
Though scientists found this ocular giveaway in just one woman, the results suggest that that hypnosis truly is an altered state of consciousness, says study coauthor Sakari Kallio of the University of Skövde in Sweden and the University of Turku in Finland.
Kallio and his colleagues studied a middle-aged, healthy and highly hypnotizable woman. Normally outgoing and chatty, when the woman heard “hypno,” she withdrew and fell quiet, says Kallio.